5th person arrested, charged in SpringHill Suites fatal robbery

A fifth person was charged and arrested in relation to a fatal shooting in a downtown St. Paul hotel parking ramp in August.

According to a warrant issued on Oct. 18, 30-year-old Franklin Carnelius Spriggs was wanted for his role in a robbery that ended with one man dead in the parking structure at the SpringHill Suites on Jackson Street at the end of August.

Spriggs was arrested in Waterloo, Iowa on a parole violation, and registered into Ramsey County Jail records Wednesday. He is charged with one count of felony aiding and abetting second-degree murder and will make his first appearance in court on Monday.

Four others are facing various murder charges.

Anthony Pryor, 20, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder on Sept. 17. Tarrance Hardie, 27, was charged via warrant on Oct. 18 and is facing one charge of second-degree murder.

On Nov. 4, Leneil Colbert Jr., 31, and Danell Christner, 37, were both charged with one count each of second-degree murder. Christner had an active warrant out for her arrest until she was taken into custody on Nov. 24.

According to a criminal complaint, 37-year-old Alexander Christoff had hired a sex worker — later identified as Christner — on the evening of Aug. 28 while staying at the SpringHill Suites. Cell phone records indicate that immediately after Christner left Christoff’s hotel room, she called Colbert. Christoff had “a lot of money, a lot of drugs and a nice car,” she said and provided his room number. Colbert and Christner called or texted one another at least nine times prior to the shooting, the complaint says.

Hardie, Pryor and Spriggs had planned to rob Christoff, investigators determined. At about 12:40 a.m. on Aug. 29, they blocked Christoff’s car in, demanded he get out, and upon his refusal, Pryor fired three rounds, fatally wounding Christoff, a complaint states. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide.

Spriggs was identified by surveillance video and named an accomplice in the homicide by police. He has four prior felony convictions including first-, second- and third-degree assault and crime for the benefit of a gang, court filings show. Spriggs, of West St. Paul, was the last of the five to be taken into custody. His bail is set at $1.5 million.

Christner, Pryor and Hardie have upcoming court dates in December, and Colbert has a date in February.